How to Get the Backstage Beauty Look of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Show

It was just days before the 2015 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund runway show that the call was made: The event was to be recast with a mix of models, dancers, musicians, kids, and even a few furry companions, all to better reflect the eclectic style tribes that made up this year’s finalists. So with just a few hours left to go this afternoon until call time, the scene backstage at Los Angeles’s legendary Chateau Marmont hotel was predictably chaotic. Models bustled between the suites appointed for hair and makeup, dancers warmed up in the hallways, and children jumped gleefully on beds while excitable dogs were cooed over by a procession of stylists and photographers.

Upstairs, makeup artist Kathy Jeung was working with a team of Smashbox artists to capture the mood of each of the show’s 10 fashion looks using the beauty company’s multitasking #ShapeMatters Palette to do everything from shading and highlighting the planes of each model’s face to filling in her brows. Next door, Aveda stylist Jon Reyman was busy crafting micro-braids that would go with Thaddeus O’Neil’s surfer-chic daywear and spraying heads with a coppery red pigment for Baja East.

If the message was clear—Be yourself! Celebrate your individuality! March to your own beat!—the means to getting there were equally unique and personal. Among the highlights worth stealing: CG by Chris Gelinas’s insouciant French schoolgirl beauty, which consisted of jaunty berets set over cascading, super-shiny waves and a precocious tomato red lip created using Smashbox Be Legendary Lipstick in Fireball Matte. “A lot of the pieces from the collection had this orangey shade in it, so this was perfect without being too matchy-matchy,” said Jueng. Meanwhile, behind retro eyeglass frames, individual lashes had been artfully applied to girls for a doll-like eye.

Baldwin’s grungy skater-meets-garage-band squad presented its own set of ’90s-inspired minimalist beauty ideas: “These girls do not spend a lot of time on their makeup,” said Jeung, who had updated the look with just enough concealer or foundation to cover any flaws. “It’s all about nonchalance.” Also playing a key role: Smashbox Always Sharp Waterproof Kohl Liner in Raven, which was applied on the inside and edges of the eye and then smudged out with a brush to look slept in, and a matte maroon lip color that fell just short of being gothy. “I was thinking Sherilyn Fenn in Twin Peaks,” said Jeung. Taking a more literal bent, hair was messy and textured using plenty of Aveda Pure Abundance Style Prep, before being topped with black beanies and fastened onto the neck with thick metal chokers crated by former CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist Jennifer Fisher.

But perhaps it was the sport-tech, fresh-from-the-gym look of Chromat’s models—with their flushed skin and slightly sweaty, slicked-back strands—that promised to translate the most seamlessly off the runway and into the front row, where guests Kanye West, Kim Kardashian West, Chrissy Teigen, John Legend, Kiernan Shipka, and Alicia Vikander were waiting to take in the show. Perfect for a West Coast city in which the appeal of the post-workout paparazzi shot is everything.